In a recent post I spoke about my experience at Impact 2012 and several announcements that were made during the conference. Among the announcements were opportunities to get free experience building patterns and custom pattern types for use in IBM Workload Deployer, IBM PureApplication System and IBM SmartCloud Application Workload Services. This included two offers: a 90-day free trial of IBM SmartCloud Application Workload Services and a new Virtual Pattern Kit for Developers - both available here. These are both terrific offers. The IBM SmartCloud offer gives you experience with patterns in the real public cloud environment for a limited period of time. The Virtual Pattern Kit for Developers provides a virtual image of IBM Workload Deployer that can be used in your own environment for development purposes to build and validate patterns.

In this post I'd like to focus on the Pattern Development Kit for Developers. This is an excellent way to get some first hand experience working with patterns. It provides a way for you to have your own virtual image of IBM Workload Deployer and associated tooling so that you can begin to work with patterns, create custom images, and create entirely new pattern types. It includes the web application and database pattern types as part of the image. It also includes the IBM Image Construction and Composition Tool, the Plugin Development Kit, and the Command Line tool - all of the tools that you need to create your own images, patterns, and custom pattern types. You can then validate these patterns and images in your private cloud environment before exporting them for deployment in IBM Workload Deployer, IBM PureApplication System, or IBM SmartCloud Application Workload Services.

I've created a video that demonstrates how easy it is to install and configure the Virtual Pattern Kit for Developers to get help get you started with this new offering. I hope you find this helpful.

No doubt that you have heard the buzz about cloud computing. If you have been tuned into this blog or other similar blogs you have no doubt also heard the talk of saving money, saving time, and increased agility using patterns of expertise. There are substantial benefits to be gained and increased efficiency when using cloud computing and especially when using patterns of expertise in the cloud. Perhaps all of this talk has piqued your interest but then you get back to you day job, look at the applications your company uses, and have no idea where to begin.

Well, there is help available in a great series of articles to help you analyze, evaluate and move forward with onboarding your applications into a private cloud solution. This particular series of articles was written specifically for onboarding your applications into IBM PureApplication System. However, if you have been following things then you also know that the core pattern technology included in PureApplication System and other IBM offerings such as IBM SmartCloud Application Workload Services got their start right here with Workload Deployer. That means that these articles are directly applicable for IBM Workload Deployer if you choose this solution where you build your own private cloud. One caveat to keep in mind - the function that is discussed in some of the articles around AMC (Advanced Middleware Configuration) that is included in PureApplication System is not included in Workload Deployer. However this same function is provided in Rational Automation Framework and when combined with IBM Workload Deployer you have the same capabilities.

So now is the time to take the next step! Check out the onboarding articles and see just how easy it can be to move your current applications into the cloud. If you don't already have IBM Workload Deployer you can also take advantage of these free trial offers to get first-hand experience with just how easy it is to work with patterns. In no time at all you will be able to reap the benefits of cloud computing and patterns of expertise for your business.

IBM Impact 2012 was just last week with a theme of "Change the Game" ... and I'm still reveling in all of the excitement and energy that goes into conferences such as this. I was fortunate to get a last minute spot to attend the conference and help out at the Solution Center where I had the chance to speak to a lot of customers and other IBMers interested in cloud computing. Among the many things that stood out - there is certainly a lot of interest in cloud computing and patterns of expertise - it also seems that folks are ready to get some first hand experience with these patterns. There's plenty of opportunity for that!

IBM Workload Deployer was specifically featured in the Solutions Center and referenced in many sessions. However, this paled in comparison to the visibility that IWD received as being one of the key components in IBM PureApplication System which was clearly the star of the show (it also helped that we had several real systems on hand to draw the crowds and drool over the raw power present in these systems). Of course IBM PureApplication System wasn't the only shinny new object. There was also a large emphasis on Mobile and BigData .... but it seemed to me that the biggest buzz was around IBM PureApplication System and in particular the "patterns of expertise" capabilities which come directly from our very own IBM Workload Deployer.

I hope you had a chance to attend the conference (perhaps I may have even spoken with you at the solutions center). However, even if you couldn't make it to the conference - there is still a wealth of information available to you. Many of the sessions were recorded so you can still watch the general sessions, detailed interviews from the social playground, highlights of the unconference, and main tent sessions. I'm sure that you will also hear a lot of news in the coming weeks as the impact of what was announced and demonstrated makes it's way through the social channels. If you had a conference pass you can also download many of the presentation materials. Also, don't forget to consider attending one of the IBM Impact2012 comes to you events to be held in various locations in the coming months.

Several announcements that came out during the conference are of particular interest to our community.. First, the IBM Virtual Pattern Kit for Developers was announced. This includes an image that you can download and then leverage to gain experience building patterns. I will warn you that the download is not for a slow bandwidth connection - one of the three images is 16GB (mine is still downloading). However, once you finally get the image you can launch a VM running a version of the IWD technology and leverage your own ESX install to work with a private cloud for development purposes.

Another announcement and opportunity to gain experience working with patterns (that doesn't involve any downloads) is a 90-day free trial of these same pattern capabilities in our public cloud offering - IBM SmartCloud Application Services. This is a great offer and a really quick way to get some hands on experience with both the value of pattern based deployments and our public cloud offering.

I would encourage you to take advantage of these offers. Both are great ways to get some first-hand experience with patterns if you don't happen to have your very own IBM Workload Deployer. As they say "seeing is believing" and it really drills it home the first time you deploy a system and have it up and running within minutes. Another way to get some experience on an actual IBM Workload Deployer appliance is to contact your IBM client representative for a Proof of Technology (POT) or Proof of Concept (POC) ... and don't forget to get a free business value assessment so you can convince your boss how much money you can save the company!